Using PicMonkey to make Invitations

I have made it absolutely no secret on ye old blog how much I love and depend on PicMonkey. I use this amazing online editing program to edit my photos, to create images for t-shirts, and to make posters, hand outs, fliers, newsletters, programs, thank you notes, gift tags, and invitations. 

Over the years I have really honed in on how to use PicMonkey to do almost everything. While I may not have the elaborate functions of a program like Illustrator and that may mean I need to get creative; PicMonkey does offer a glorious amount of functions and edits plus the cost is nothing for the basic membership and practically nothing for the royale membership.

So let's talk about how easy it is to make your own invites. Most of the invites in this post took a little bit more time because several of the overlays I created (I will talk about that a little more in another post). However, PicMonkey has two features that allow you to easily add overlays that you don't have to make.

In the above batman invite, the batman head was designed and created by me in PicMonkey using different geometric overlays, but the bat at the top was an overlay already available. 

But I feel like I am getting a little ahead of myself.

First things first. Get an idea of what you want. When you have an idea, it is easier to create an invite. Once you have an idea, then it is time to start creating.

On the home page is a drop down menu. When creating any new project, you will use the design feature. I most often use the blank canvas feature, but they are also currently testing out a premade template option. I have used that once before on the BLOOM invite toward the end of this post. This feature is by far the easiest and fastest way to make an invite. However, if you want more of a creative say, then the blank canvas option is for you.

The blank canvas option has tons of canvas size options. I most often use 4x6 or 5x7 when I am doing invites.

Once you have your canvas, here is a quick and basic run down of making an invite.

1. Choose a canvas color, aka a background color. When in doubt, stick with white. It is more forgiving and versatile. Plus it is cheaper to print.

2. Pick your overlays, aka your pictures. You can choose from their overlays, or you can search clip art, or icons.

Overlays can be found under the butterfly icon. A whole mind boggling drop down menu of options will appear.

Let's say I am throwing a farm birthday party. I quickly find some adorable farm animals. I choose them and arrange them how I want.

I would really like a cute barn. PicMonkey doesn't have a barn overlay. No worries though. That is where the internet comes in handy. In this instance I simply searched for barn clip art. I found a cute one right away.

After I save it to my computer, I go to the "add you own" button in the overlays. Here you can pick from images you have saved on your computer.

Then put the image where you want it. As you can see, I changed my mind about where I wanted the animals. That is part of the fun. Play around with it. As you can also see, I decided the animals needed some color. This is done SO easily, by clicking on each image and changing the color.

3. Next is the fonts. PicMonkey has a ton of great fonts. Some are only available with the royale membership. You can also use your own fonts. That is right, the fonts on your very own computer. Mix and match fonts. Use a big bold font for themes and main points. Then use a softer simpler font for the bulk of information.

Here I used Chunk Five for the main themes and Geo Sans Light (a personal favorite) for the information. Again, play around with placement and size of the text.

You can approach you text in many different ways. Text can be in a frame.

Text can be different colors or in banners.

The options really are endless.

4. Borders. It is almost always a good idea to add a simple boarder. It finishes off the invite AND makes it easy to cut out. There are a lot of different boarder options found under the picture frame icon. Almost 100% of the time I opt for the Simple Edge. I like that it is cleaner and doesn't distract from the invite.

Once you are done, you will have a really cute invite. An Etsy quality invite that you made completely by yourself. You simple need to save it onto your computer. Then insert it into a Word type document. You can print them off yourself or you can put them on a USB drive and take them to an office supply store. I have done both.

Remember have fun and play around. Explore all the options that PicMonkey has. Whether it be adding your own text into a premade template, like this beautiful BLOOM invite,

or whether it be a compilation of your own creative juices, PicMonkey will up your invite game. Seriously once you start you won't be able to stop.

I hope this was helpful. I tried to keep it informative yet simple. Obviously I could go more in depth about some things (like how I make my own designs using only geometric overlays), but this post was already getting long enough. Like write a novel long, and no one wants to read that novel.

So I will be done with all the instruction now. Again, hope it was helpful!

Batman Birthday Invite

Before I go into the details of this rather adorable Batman Birthday Party Invite, I would like to say something.

When you are out of the habit of blogging, almost two months goes by with no post, and you don't even realize it. I am not sure anyone else realized it either. Probably because of my "radio" silence increasing more and more over the last year, I am sure the few people I had reading this blog have given up on me. So let me say thanks for sticking with me that long.

I have come to the realization, that I am okay with my blogging life (or lack there of). Of course part of me wants to be read by thousands and thousands. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to be known in the blogosphere for my mad skills. I want validation from friends, strangers, and mega bloggers. 

BUT...

I am not good at the life. I am not great at self promoting. I don't have the funds for a blog face lift (hence that I am in the dark ages and still have a blogspot) or to go to all the amazing and fabulous conferences out there. I am not a great entrepreneur (heck I couldn't even spell it...spell check had to help). I admire those woman who do and can. They are so very awesome at what they do.

For years I felt that because they are awesome at what they do and I don't do that well, it must mean that I am about as far from awesome as you can get. 

So I backed off of blogging. I backed off because, someone could do it better. No one out there would miss me or what I do. I was getting an ulcer watching my blog views go down. My comments become nonexistent. Basically I backed off in a pity party kind of way. 

So, why even blog a tiny bit now? 

This is why. I still love creating things. I can say in some confidence that there are things I am good at. Even if only my mom reads this blog anymore (thanks MOM I love you), I still want to share. Who cares if I am not a dot com. Who cares if no one sponsors me. Who cares. Who cares.

So I "blog" for me right now. I create for me because I like to. I decorate when I can. I make stuff when I have time. I share because it is fun. If someone gets an idea from me. Great. If people occasionally stop by from Pinterest. AWESOME and welcome. However, even if just my mom reads, that is good too. 

I had a good run for awhile. Who knows maybe when my kids are all in school if this blogging thing is still around I will jump back in with a little more professionalism. 

For right now, I am good with just sharing what I do when I do it. 

LONGEST intro to a blog post ever. Sorry about that.

So on to this Batman Birthday Party Invite.  I wish I could say I came up with the concept of this modern simple batman invite all on my own. However, thanks to Pinterest I came across my inspiration on The Hostess with the Mostess Blog via a party done by Posh Paperie. I really liked her design style and the concept of the party so I copy-catted her a bit.

For the invite I turned to my handy dandy PicMonkey.

I used geometric overlays for the flood lights. I used the bat overlays found in the Halloween section. The rest was just a mixture of some of my favorite fonts.

One of the things I liked the most was the idea of a geometric Batman. So I made one. This Batman was completely made from mixing and manipulating geometric overlays. He turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

For the back of this card, I just copied and positioned image after image of the original Batman head.

I also used the Batman head for some birthday posters (which I will share soon) and these name tags that I taped to the outside of the envelopes.

The whole invite ensemble looked like this.

I was able to save this all to my computer and just print from my printer on to cardstock. Setting aside making the little Batman head image, it really was very simple and the perfect way to invite some fellow superheroes over.

UPlifting Evening Invitation: YWIE

I said this post was coming, but I fibbed a little about how soon I was going to have it up. I may have said tomorrow when I meant in a week...hehehe.

I shared my UPlifting YWIE last week. This is the invitation I made to go out for it. Today I am going to show how you can customize this invitation for your own event.

I also am showing how I like to package up my invites. One of my favorite ways to hand out invites is using these sweet patterned goodie bags. I bought mine at Zurchers.

I always have some cute washi tape on hand and I use it to close up the baggy envelopes.

I print out invites on card stock because it holds up better.

Now they are all ready to hand out.

Here is the blank invite image that I made using PicMonkey.

If you liked the idea of an UPlifting YWIE and want to have an UPlifting evening of your own, you can use this image for invites for your event.

You need to right click and save the image onto your computer.

I use PicMonkey for the majority of my photo editing and image creating. I highly recommend using it for all of your projects. The basic edits are free, but the Royale membership is pretty cheap and totally worth it and you have access to even more.

Once you download the jpeg for this invite, you can head over to PicMonkey to customize it. On the main page you choose the edit function and then open your photo.

The photo opened in the program will look like this.

Click on the Tt to open the fonts. I used Lato for the ward name, the "please join us on" and the place, time, and the "for an". I had the font at size 100. I showed below about where I moved all the words to.

Next I used the font Coffeebreak. This font is a Royale font only available if you have the membership. However, there are lots of fun script fonts that are free. I used this font for the year, the title "Young Women in Excellence", the date, and later the "lifting" part of UPlifting. The font size was 213.

Next I used Arial Black for UP. I changed the font color to white and I made the size a lot bigger.

Now I went back to coffeebreak and I added the "lifting" in white. Last I went back to Lato, kept it in all caps and typed out EVENING.

So that is the easy peasy way to customize your own invites using this background and PicMonkey. Using PicMonkey is addicting and can make invites, hand outs, and posters so cute.

Hope this simple how-to was helpful.

Lunch Sack Envelopes

Invitations to special events don't need to be expensive or ordered online. There are ways you can make a homemade invite look special without spending tons of cash. One of those ways to to be creative with how you package the invite. I have used a lot of fun mediums. This Lunch Sack Envelope is one of my favorite envelopes.

They are so easy to make. SO easy.

Most of us have lunch sacks just laying around. You can get traditional brown or white. Heck, they make similar bags that are "gift bags" and you can get those in practically any color. I also grabbed a sharpie pen and some washi tape.

The invites themselves were also affordable. I simply made them myself on PicMonkey. Then I printed them out on white card stock.

To make the Lunch Sack Envelopes, I measured the size of the invite and then sewed across the bottom of the sack with a 3.5 stitch just above the bottom of the bag fold.

Next I cut off all the bottoms.

Right there I had an envelope. To fancy it up a bit, I simple tore off a piece of washi tape and smacked it right on the bag. Then using a sharpie I wrote the recipients name above the tape.

Now all I had to do was slip in the invitation. 

I delivered them just like this to our lives-by-us friends and family. I slipped the whole thing in a larger envelope for those friends and family who we mailed one to.

See, invites don't have to break the bank. I am pretty sure I only spent money on the postage to mail some of them out. Huzzah! That is what I like.

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